Concussion cover-up shows that risks are being played down by governing bodies

SPORTS governing bodies around the world, including the English Football Association, today stand accused of deliberately underplaying the long-term health risks of concussion and repeating mistakes which led to a massive settlement between the NFL and brain-damaged players.

Less than two weeks ago, a federal judge in the United States ruled a $765million compensation package for retired American Footballers suffering long-term neurological problems linked to multiple concussions was not enough and the scale of the problem was potentially so large that the pot should be left uncapped.

The NFL was forced to agree the settlement — the biggest in the history of sport — almost a year ago when they were found to have covered up potentially life-saving concussion research while giving false information to players about the long-term effects of head injuries.

This week, evidence emerged that other major sports governing bodies — including football, rugby union and Australian Rules Football — appear to be employing similar tactics in an effort to delay research programmes, misrepresent findings and protect commercial interests

One brain injury expert told the Mail on Sunday: ‘It feels like groundhog day. History is repeating itself.’

In 2009, a leaked study, promised by the NFL but subsequently covered up, demonstrated a 19 times higher incidence of early on-set dementia in former Grid Iron players than in the wider population and began a cascade of events that led to the biggest pay out in the history of sport.

Subsequent post mortems on diseased players has detected a startlingly high incidence of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

There is now growing concern that other sports governing bodies — including the Football Association (FA), International Rugby Board (IRB), Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Australian Football League — are employing identical delaying tactics by promising long-term studies but failing to publish any data.

The Mail on Sunday has learned sports governing bodies have:

PROMISED long-term research to investigate links between repeated concussions and longterm neurological problems but failed to ever publish any findings.

REFUSED to allow players to participate in independent research projects designed to better understand long-term risks associated with concussion.

GAGGED players from speaking openly about their experiences of concussion.

PROVIDED misleading information to players about the long-term risks of concussion, leaving them potentially open to damaging legal action.

REFUSED to allow medical staff to attend brain injury meetings held by the world’s leading experts on the subject

TRIED to discredit and undermine credible research into head trauma

FAILED to empower team medics to make important medical calls on substituting players

The Mail on Sunday has also uncovered evidence of a co-ordinated attempt to undermine and discredit ground-breaking research in the United States which has identified CTE in hundreds of former professional athletes and military veterans with a history of concussions.

In April this year, we revealed a joint FA and PFA 10-year study promised in the wake of former England striker Jeff Astle’s death from early on-set dementia in 2002, which a coroner found was caused by heading footballs, was never completed.

Astle’s widow Laraine said: ‘I’m appalled at the lack of research that’s been carried out. I can only conclude there has been a cover up. The FA has tried to brush this whole issue under the carpet.’

The Mail on Sunday has made repeated attempts to contact the lead researcher, Dr Steven Kemp, but has so far been unable to establish why it has taken more than three years since the study’s proposed completion date to publish any findings.

‘I find it quite startling that it is possible to state that you are conducting a study into something with potentially huge public health implications yet fail to deliver the findings,’ said Professor Willie Stewart, a world-leading CTE expert from Glasgow University.

‘It would seem that at the moment the wrong type of research is being carried out by the wrong people. Sport cannot be allowed to deal with this on its own.

‘Many of the same mistakes are being repeated from the NFL. It feels like groundhog day.’